Computer worm attack set for April 1 - not a joke according to Snopes

[tbyg52]

Can't copy and paste even a snip from Snopes, but it's a thing called Canficker that has been infecting computers since last November, which will begin "phoning home" on April 1st. The security people they quoted don't *think* it will be a big deal, but they do say it is real. There's a link to a way to remove (and, presumably, detect) it.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/conficker.asp

Edited to change description to "worm."

[FreeState]

1. Here is some of it...

Origins: Conficker.C (also known as Kido or Downadup) is the third iteration of a worm which first began slithering its way onto Windows-based PCs in November 2008, with each version growing more sophisticated than the last. Like many other forms of malware, after it has infected a target computer (by downloading a Trojan), it tries to prevent its removal by disabling anti-virus software and blocking access to security-related web sites.

The Conficker worm's purpose is to create a "botnet" of infected computers that can be controlled by Conficker's creators, allowing them to engage in such activities as stealing stored information from those computers, launching attacks against particular web sites, or directing infected machines to send out spam e-mails. Although no one is quite sure how many computers have already been infected by Conficker, estimates place the number upwards of a couple of million.

Beginning on 1 April 2009, infected computers will start attempting to "call home" (i.e., contact control servers in the botnet) in order to receive Conficker updates, which has led to claims that some apocalyptic cyber-event will occur on that date and result in millions of computers being wiped out or large portions of the Internet being disabled. Although no one really knows what's going to happen with Conficker on (or after) that date, security experts have opined that it likely won't be nearly as substantial as some of the wilder speculation would have it:

[tbyg52]

2. Thanks - I don't know why I couldn't select anything on the Snopes page. nt

[eleny]

4. I can't either. Must be that Snopes is set up that way

[ima_sinnic]

6. "Select All" works for me in Mozilla

of course, all the extraneous stuff in the left column is also selected, but I was able to paste the whole thing into a Word file and would then be able to copy and paste whatever I wanted from the page.

[FreeState]

7. There using code to hide it...

I just copied the source and took out the HTML coding. I hate it when sites do stuff like that but I believe they are trying to stop people from stealing information.

Edit to add if you turn off Javascript in your browser you can copy it the normal way as well.

[eleny]

3. There's some info posted in a thread here at DU yesterday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3802478

The PC Mag article:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343910,00.asp

I did wind up donwloading PowerToys for XP from the Microsoft site
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

And there's this YouTube video on how to use it to be protected from this
virus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUmNuR13P4E

[tbyg52]

5. Thanks - it only got one vote, which would be why I didn't see it.

Maybe this one will get more - I posted it because I was glad to have gotten an email letting *me* know about it!

[eleny]

8. That was my Rec :)

I downloaded the Microsoft add-on and the You Tube is an easy tutorial on how to get protected. But I'm looking into it some more to see if anything else is affected once I get it done.

Please let me know if you find that out. If anything else gets shut down or we need to accomplish any other task in a different way.

:hi:

[tbyg52]

9. I'm not likely to find anything else myself -

I'm on dialup, so I don't do much heavy research. Somebody just happened to email me the info. I doubt I'm going to do anything with it myself, as I do little, if anything, on the computer that would get me infected (knock on wood). I have never (knock on wood) had a virus at home, only once at work (and that one easily fixable) - I'd like to keep it that way....!